Shimla, October 9
Launching a counter-offensive against the Dhumal family, two Congress ministers today defended Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and levelled serious charges, including cheating and fraud, against former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his sons.

Taking the Dhumals head-on, Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma and Excise & Taxation Minister Prakash Chaudhary said instead of pointing a finger at others, the Dhumal family should tell the people how it had grabbed a public school, acquired a petrol pump and diamond jewellery shop at Jalandhar.

It should also be disclosed how Anurag Thakur obtained bonafide certificates of both Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to get a petrol pump in the neighbouring state and take control of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association. Prem Kumar Dhumal should himself unravel the mystery of having more than one PAN card.

They alleged that a malicious campaign had been launched against the Chief Minister by the Dhumal family, which was making wild accusations out of sheer frustration as its misdeeds were now coming out in public.

Arun Dhumal had tried to create a hype in the media by raking up the issue of income tax returns which was raised by senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley during the recent Assembly poll to malign Virbhadra Singh image. The matter was looked into by the Income Tax authorities and after scrutiny of the returns, no illegal transaction was found by them.

The people had also rejected his unfounded allegations and voted the Congress to power. It seemed that Dhumal had not learnt any lesson.

Regarding a loan taken by Virbhadra Singh from an individual, the ministers said it was taken through a cheque at 12 per cent 
interest after adopting proper procedure and it was duly documented.

Arun Dhumal was distributing illegally the copies of his income tax returns to the media, which was an offence in itself. He should know that the loan about which he was making a hue and cry, was reflected in various returns of Virbhadra and he was paying interest on it.

The greed of the Dhumal family could be judged from the fact that it did not spare even a poor landless person, Premu, who was granted 'nautor' land, and purchased his land in violation the law rendering him landless.

Premu was granted land in 1992-93 under the HP Village Common Lands (Vesting & Utilisation) Scheme and it could not be sold for 20 years from the date of possession. Also, the land could not be sold as long as the wife of the allottee was alive and as such land transaction between Anurag and Premu was illegal.

The matter pertaining to Delhi Public School at Jalandhar was in the court where Arun was accused of cheating.

If Dhumal and his sons felt that some wrong had been done to them, they should seek legal remedy rather than making unnecessary hue and cry in the media.

Una, October 9
SVSD College, Bhatoli, in Una district lands in controversy again following the efforts being made to acquire the college by the government as relatives of an influential bureaucrat of the state are reportedly working here.

Sources said the bureaucrat wanted the college to be taken over as it would facilitate the entry of his relatives in government job and further their transfers to favoured locations.

Though the government is showing keenness to take over the college against the willingness of management committee, the application of many other colleges such as Himutkarsh College in Una, where the managements have offered to handover buildings to the government, are pending.

This is the second attempt by the Congress government to take over the college against the wishes of local management.

Sources said since the present government took over, letters were being received by the college management from various government departments regarding the takeover of the college. In a recent letter, the government has written to the college management to suggest how the government could take over the college and its staff.

The Congress government on September 14, 2006, had taken over the college. However, the management committee of the college moved the Himachal Pradesh High Court. The court struck down the takeover of the college on the plea that it was taken over against the policy of the state government.

As per the policy of the state government, the process for taking over private colleges could only be initiated if the management of such college gives their ascent for it. However, in case of SVSD College, the private management had not given any ascent for the takeover.

As per the High Court order, the previous government had de-notified the college and handed it over to the private management.

However, the government has started the proceedings to take over the college again.

About two days ago, Minister for Industries Mukesh Agnihotri visited the college on the request of students who were reportedly sitting on a hunger strike. He persuaded the students to end their fast and also announced that the process of takeover of the college was derailed by the previous BJP government.

KK Sharma, principal of the college, while talking to The Tribune, said he was hurt at the way the minister had acted in the college. The college authorities were not even informed about the visit of the minister, he alleged.

“The students who were spearheading the agitation in the college were mostly outsiders. An FIR was registered against two students on September 27 for threatening me in my office inside the college,” he said.

Patron of the college and former chairman of the Delhi Bar Council KK Menon said the minister should ensure that the academic atmosphere of the college was not disturbed. “I will take up the matter of political interference in the college with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh,” he said.

Solan, October 9
Reckless cutting of trees to clear a plot for construction led to disruption of power supply in some areas of Solan today as LT and HT lines located on the Forest Road suffered damage.

Though the power supply had been disrupted since yesterday and several areas such as Forest Road, ward number 8, Shilli, Shamti, the Thodo Ground area and even the DC’s residence suffered disruption in power supply, officials of the HP State Electricity Board failed to initiate timely action.

It was in the evening yesterday that the police was informed that the HT and LT lines supplying power to several areas of the town had been snapped on the Forest Road and a JCB machine had been deployed there. The police, however, found no JCB machine on the spot yesterday evening. Solan SHO Anil Daulta said they were inquiring into the matter after having received a complaint from officials of the HP State Electricity Board and since no one had been named, they could not register an FIR .

Since the area fell in the precincts of the Solan Municipal Committee, Executive Officer BR Negi rushed to the site and halted the work after impounding the machinery involved in the illegal tree felling.

Negi said no permission had been sought from the committee to cut trees and an illegal operation was halted soon after receiving the information.

Officials of the HP State Electricity Board said apart from the broken lines, the loss suffered on account of rushing labourers to repair the lines would be included in the loss which was yet to be calculated.

Dharamsala, October 9
The Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Dharamsala, and Students for a Free Tibet-India Network organised a solidarity march by raising Tibetan flags on the streets of McLeodganj, Dharamsala.

The protesters alleged that on October 6, the Chinese forces opened fire on a group of people in Tibet, in which at least 60 were injured and two were in a critical condition. The group was peacefully protesting the arrest of a Tibetan man, who refused to hoist the Chinese flag on his home to mark China’s National Day on October 1, they claimed.

They alleged that China's crackdown on Driru was escalating and the residents were being forced to attend government propaganda meetings against their will. An elderly Tibetan man was brutally beaten after he called for Tibet's independence last month. Now, Tibetans were being shot for joining a peaceful demonstration and Chinese forces had flooded the area, they alleged.

Bilaspur, October 9
Rameshwar Dass Gauttam, Lok Pal, MGNREGA, here has passed an order awarding unemployment allowance of Rs 3,933 to villager Dhyana Ram of Takrehda village near here for not providing employment under the government scheme.

Gauttam said here today that both respondents, Programme Officer MGNREGA and panchayat president, Ghumarwin, have been asked to give this amount to the complainant within 15 days which is his unemployment allowance under Section 22 (2) of the MGNREGA Act.

This is for the first time that such an order has been passed in favour of an unemployed villager who was denied the employment here.

Dhyana Ram had submitted a complaint to the Lokpal here that despite his demand he was not provided employment. — OC

Solan, October 9
With the Central Government providing Rs 8 crore to the Himachal Drug Manufacturers Association (HDMA) to set up a drug testing lab, the pharmaceutical hub, Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN), is all set to get a first such lab which will facilitate the industry.

The association was now on the lookout for a suitable land and though some sites measuring 2,000 sq m had been inspected, the final site was yet to be selected, said SL Singla, president of the association.

There are an estimated 320 pharmaceutical units in the BBN, which is also known as the pharmaceutical hub of Asia, besides 80 cosmetic manufacturing units. A majority of these are small-scale entrepreneurs and since drug testing involved an expenditure of crores of rupees, small manufacturers get their drugs tested from accredited labs located outside the state.

According to an estimate, these units incurred an expenditure of about Rs 15 lakh per month on such testing as it is a mandatory provision under the Schedule L-1 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act to get drugs tested from a recognised lab before being sold. Setting up such a lab was an exorbitant proposition for the small-scale investors as sophisticated machines cost as much as Rs 10 crore to Rs 13 crore.

Singla said they would make testing facilities available at half the rates to the small-scale investors and this would help them run the lab whose working would be supervised by the HDMA once it was set up.

He said since the state did not have a referral lab and there was only one Composite Testing Lab at Kandaghat which catered to the pharmaceutical sector comprising 700 units in the state, the HDMA would endeavour to get this lab recognised by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration of Laboratories so that it could be enlisted as a government-accredited lab, which would help pharma manufacturers.

Hamirpur, October 9
The All-India Pichhda Jan Samaj Party will field its candidates on all four parliament seats in the state.

This was disclosed by Mohammad Hussain Khan, national general secretary of the party, while talking to mediapersons here today.

He said the party intended to solve basic problems of people of the country by roping in every section of society and bringing equality in every sphere of life.

State president of the party Ashok Dewan said leaders are in the process of finalising party candidates for the parliament election.

Nurpur, October 9
As many as 106 poor persons today got cheques to the tune of Rs 37,500 each as the first instalment for their house construction. The cheques were distributed by local MLA Ajay Mahajan under the Indira and Rajiv Awas Yojna. He said the UPA government had enhanced financial assistance to the poor for house construction from Rs 48,000 to 75,000.

He claimed that he was committed to the development of the area and crores of rupees were being spent on development activities in the current financial year. He said Rs 58 crore had been earmarked for the Phina Singh irrigation project and 21 tube wells were sanctioned in the current fiscal year.

He said social security pensions had been sanctioned to 463 persons of the area during the past nine months and Rs 4.80 crore was spent under the MGNREGA during the past four months in Nurpur development block.

Bilaspur, October 9
A leopard killed a cow of Hari Ram Chaudhary of Changar village, adjoining the Changar sector, here last evening.

Reports said the cow was returning to its cowshed after grazing in the nearby field when the leopard attacked and killed it.

Teams of Forests and Animal Husbandry Departments visited the spot.

After the incident, panic has gripped the entire area. The residents of the area urged the Forest Department to catch the leopard as soon as possible.

Hamirpur, October 9
The district unit of the Himachal Lokhit Party submitted a memorandum to the Governor of the state through the SDM, Nadaun, highlighting various issues.

Senior vice-president of the HLP BR Mandial accompanied by other party leaders have expressed serious concern on the recent bus fare hike, rise in prices of essential commodities, deterioration in law and order situation and monkey menace and stray animals.

Shimla, October 9
The Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) is all set to announce its entry into the wind power sector with its 47.6 MW project at Khirveri in Maharashtra to be commissioned within a fortnight.

The project is fast nearing completion and 56 turbines of 850 KW each already installed at the site are being test run. The project has been designed to generate 85.65 million units of electricity annually. The turbines installed one after the other are being synchronised one by one and generation will be started after fully stabilisation of the project.

The SJVN had awarded the contract for execution of the project to Spanish company Gamesa Wind Turbine. The project is estimated to cost Rs 300 crore. As the plant availability factor is much lower in case of wind power plants, the cost of generation will be on the higher side and the feed in tariff for will be Rs 5.67 per unit.

RK Agarwal, Executive Director, Business Development, said the process of commissioning would start within two weeks and all 56 turbines will become operational over the next two months. The actual power generation would depend on the wind profile which changes with the season.

The power will be evacuated though a 22-km-long transmission line which will connect the project to the powergrid. Commercial operations of the project will start after achieving grid stabilisation.

As per a memorandum of understanding signed by the SJVN with the Union Ministry of Power, the project has to generate 55 million units during the current financial year. Besides, the company's 412 MW Rampur project is also slated to be commissioned by March 2014.

Bilaspur, October 9
Thieves broke into three jewellery shops and stole silver ornaments and cash worth several lakhs from there yesterday.

Reports said thieves stole silver ornaments worth several lakhs from the shop of Sanjay Soni on the Bus Stand path at Ghumarwin bazaar, near here. They also took away all the cash from the shop of Thakur Dass, near Bachat Bawan, here.

Thieves also stole cash from the shop of Rajneesh Kumar at Patta village, near Ghumarwin, during the same night.

Separate cases has been registered and further investigations are on.

Solan, October 9
Terming the fresh reorganisation of the Chail Wildlife Sanctuary into three forest divisions following rationalisation of wildlife sanctuaries as inimical to the interest of the sanctuary area, residents of various panchayats resented the move on the plea that it would adversely affect the flora and fauna.

The residents of various panchayats, including Chail, Jhaja, Dubloo, Janedghat, Banjani Nagali, Sakori, Hinner and Dhangil, in a representation to the Secretary, Forests, said denotification of 92.53 sq km from the total area of 108.53 sq km of the Chail sanctuary had created a situation where the area would now be governed by three forest divisions.

While the sanctuary area has been reduced to 16 sq km, the remaining 92.53 sq km has been denotified and it has been decided to hand over 975 hectares of demarcated protected forest (DPF) and undemarcated protected forest along with private lands and other areas to the Koti range of the Shimla Forest Division falling in the Shimla Circle, while the remaining 2.11.2 hectares reserve forest, unprotected forest and DPF along with private land, which inhabit major species of wild animals, to the Solan Forest Division falling under the Nahan Circle.

Since Solan and Nahan both are located far from the Chail area, this transfer of control of the crucial area inhabiting flora and fauna to the Solan Forest Division will adversely affect the protection of animals. This will not only disturb their natural habitat but also create various problems relating to jurisdiction.

The rationalisation exercise was notified in June 2013 where only 16sq km area was retained in the Chail Wildlife Sanctuary while the remaining area of 92.53 sq km was denotifed.

The residents were now demanding that the control of the sanctuary should be kept under a single forest division and single circle with the range headquarters being housed locally as was the present situation.

Dalhousie, October 9
The police has seized 3.1 kg charas from a car, near Bounkhari Mor, about 10 km from here, last evening.

A police press communiqué said here today that the police party intercepted a private car near the Bounkhari Mor and on checking the vehicle, charas weighing 3.1 kg was recovered.

A case has been registered under Sections 20 and 25 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The car has been impounded and the accused has been arrested.